A source at the Show Jumping Association of Ireland (SJAI) claimed this week the association is "virtually bankrupt" as a result of financial mismanagement in 1997 and a massive spending spree this year.

A £300,000 tracker bond has been used as collateral for borrowings, but the association has reached its credit limit and now has an overdraft of £70,000 and creditors of £170,000.

Legal fees amounting to £65,000 and accounting and auditing fees of £60,000 were reported at the SJAI's Leinster region a.g.m. on Thursday night. The legal figure was disputed from the floor, however, and claims were made that it now stands at over £100,000.

More than £20,000 was spent on public relations, computer equipment and temporary staff for the Dublin headquarters after the association's director general, Tony Kelly, left on extended sick leave in April.

The figures were revealed after demands from the Leinster membership present at Thursday's meeting that the national executive's 1998 expenditure should be detailed. Gerry Thompson, who stepped in as Leinster region chairman following the mass resignations from the national executive at the end of October, then listed the outgoings from the SJAI coffers this year.

A further £150,000, which was not mentioned in Thompson's address to the meeting, was spent on a contract for television coverage of the national grand prix circuit by TnaG and Sky.

The SJAI's finances had already come under close scrutiny when the 1997 figures appeared to show a substantial loss - in the region of £200,000 - resulting in auditors Deloitte & Touche adding a qualification to the accounts.

The Irish Sports Council subsequently refused to release the £53,000 earmarked for the SJAI in its 1998 grant allocation to the Equestrian Federation of Ireland (EFI) unless the qualification was removed by the auditors. The EFI has now set a December 18th deadline for the SJAI to produce unqualified accounts, but it seems unlikely that this will be achieved.

The SJAI executive, which will be back to full strength by Monday when Leinster nominates its five representatives, is running out of time on the 1997 accounts, but attention seems now to be focused on getting this year's figures in order ready for next month's 1998 national a.g.m.

Conditional jockey Henry Oliver has been suspended for 10 days for misuse of the whip on Spandau who finished ninth in the Doncaster Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race yesterday. The ban starts on December 21st.

Oliver was found guilty of using his whip with unreasonable force.